Ok...Kassadin...this guy has been a thorn, a terror, a bonafide disaster in League, for players and the devs in Riot. A rework, several nerfs and months latter, he appears to be finally dead...his win, play and ban rate have dropped like a crashing plane. (Doesn't mean that he can't resurface latter on, but i don't believe him to be in a good state IMO).
However, thematically-wise Kassadin is amazing and his notion as an anti-mage is amazing, however his kit doesn't do him much justice ATM. I'm gonna post a rework idea i had, with explanations for each modified ability, so ideas, thoughts and counter-opinions are welcome and necessary, just keep them civil...ok, here we go:
Kassadin
- Passive: Anti-Mage
- Kassadin takes 15% reduced magic damage and ignores unit colision.
- Q: Null Sphere
- Active: Same, but with the shield duration is increased to 2 seconds and the mana cost is reduced to 70 at all ranks.
- Spellcharge Effect: Kassadin's shield becomes a spell-shield and regains mana equal to 50% of the damag
efrom the negated spell.
- W: Nether Blade
- Passive: Removed.
- Active: Same, but the AP scaling is reduced to 45% from 60% and the mana restoration is removed.
- Spellcharge Effect: Kassadin's next empowered attack damage is increased by 1% for every 1% of his missing mana.
- E: Force Pulse
- Passive: Removed
- Active: Same but the cooldown is increased to 12 seconds.
- Spellcharge Effect: The next Force Pulse cast marks the damaged opponents for 3 seconds. They marked enemies deal 15% reduced spell damage for the duration of the mark.
- R: Riftwalk
- Passive: Spellcharge: Kassadin draws energy from spells cast in his vicinity, gaining a charge whenever a spell is cast near him (including his own spells). Upon reaching 10 charges, his next spell cast gains an additional effect. Range: 1000
- Active: Same but the cooldown is now 7 seconds at all ranks and the mana cost is increased to 100.
- Spellcharge Effect: The next Riftwalk becomes free to cast and has no cooldown.
Ok, so the basic idea is to severely push Kassadin to the niche of an anti-mage assassin, making him a counter to AP-scaling/magic damage mid laners, but have him suffer against Physical damage dealing champions. To this end, i think the new passive would work wonders for it, since it would dissuade people from abusing him in the mid-lane. Although i imagine that this kit wouldn't be enjoyed by Riot since they don't like the idea of pure counters but still.
The passive effect of his new ult is the corner stone to his new kit, both thematically and play-wise. It plays with the idea of Kassadin slowly empowering himself with the spells of his enemies and then turn their magic against themselves. Play-wise it's meant to give Kassa a set of situation specific power-spikes after level 6 and make him extremely powerful against mages. Since it'll take sometime to charge, the idea is to use the next empowered effect in clutch situations.
Of course i had to reduce the power of his regular kit to somewhat compensate this empowered passive. Removing the W passive, decreasing it's scaling, increasing the cooldown of his E and increasing the mana cost and cooldown of his ult. Also since he only gains this passive at level 6, with the reduced power of his kit pre-6, you'll have a harder laning phase. Now i believe the main problem could be the silence returning, but since it's much more situational it could work better, the same with the free to cast ultimate...what better to fit the theme of an anti-mage than the ability to deny a mage the capacity to cast spells turn their magic against them and use said magic to empower himself?
Well that's it for now. Ideas for the rework, Spellcharge effects, even other ideas are welcome.
EDIT: Ok so from what was commented so far, my current version is too much of an anti-mage, soo suggestions are apreciated.
EDIT 2: Ok so i restored Kassa's original passive and removed the damage reflection of the Spellcharge Q, instead giving it a mana restoration ability. Also instead of making his Spellcharge W scale with the enemies AP, it scales with his enemy's missing mana to make him more difficult against caster-based carries rather than just mages. Anymore ideas are welcomed.
EDIT 3: Ok so i forgot about the manaless section of our champion roster...mea culpa, mea culpa. Changed the damage amplification to Kassa's own missing mana...since he's still gonna be mana hungry this could be a good idea to bait an enemy/turn a prolonged fight around the enemy's head. Also slightly increased the AP scaling on the W to make sure the amplified spell HURTS when used.
EDIT 4: Modified some of Kassa's mana costs.
EDIT 5: So instead of a silence on the empowered E (the whole no counterplay on assassins thing) why not a debuff that reduces their spell damage for a duration?